It's natural for your career to progress as yous gain new knowledge and design skills. If you have extensive experience in graphic design, photography, art, or another creative occupation, becoming an art manager is just ane style to advance through the ranks. This guide will explore what an art director does, the deviation between an art managing director and a creative director, and practical tips on how to become an art director or grow into the part.

"A neat art director should exist able to tackle two main aspects of a project—the creative and the emotional." — Marco Cvijetic, Fine art Managing director @IKEA

Art Director Job Description

An art managing director is responsible for developing and executing designs for advertisements, magazines, digital publications, newspapers, movies, television shows, product packaging, and other collaborative creative projects. The job of an art director often involves creating original designs and directing the work of artists, designers, and other individuals involved in the project. Equally an art director, you lot must be able to use design thinking to solve problems in a artistic way. You may also exist asked to perform the following duties:

  • Select artistic elements needed for a project including photographs, illustrations, fonts, sound, etc.
  • Manage design staff, including graphic designers, illustrators, and gear up designers
  • Coordinate project activities with workers in other departments
  • Create timelines and budgets for design projects
  • Approve photographs, illustrations, and designs created by other professionals

Art director Marco Cvijetic describes his role in a nutshell:

"I currently work equally an Art Director at IKEA with a focus on Production Pictures & Films. That means that together with a really diverse team of Photographers, 3D Artists, Interior Designers, and Retouch Artists, we produce content for IKEA'south global website only also for many other channels."

Career Opportunities for Fine art Directors

I of the most exciting things about becoming an fine art director is that you can piece of work equally an employee or every bit an independent contractor. As a full-time fine art director employee, you lot may work for a moving-picture show studio, a public relations firm, a newspaper or mag publisher, or an advertizement agency. If you become the freelance route, you can specialize in working with ane blazon of company or offer your services to companies in a diversity of industries.

Employment opportunities are most abundant in highly populated areas. In the Usa, for case, California, Texas, Florida, and Pennsylvania are among u.s.a. with the most opportunities for art directors. You can as well find many employment opportunities in London, Paris, Milan, Tokyo, and other international cities.

Skills Needed to Become an Art Managing director

But considering you take blueprint skills doesn't mean you'll succeed equally an fine art director. You as well need to take some specific personal characteristics. One of the most important is an even temperament. You demand to be able to inspire squad members and motivate them to work hard when a borderline is looming.

A proficient art managing director also knows when team members can work autonomously and when they need a petty more oversight, and so yous must be able to maintain a expert residue between micromanaging people and leaving them without whatsoever support at all. If you maintain this delicate residual, you're more probable to complete a project successfully. You may too develop a reputation every bit a skilled leader, creating more opportunities to share your inventiveness with the world.

As an art director, you need to work with many projection stakeholders, from the clients paying for your services to the team members responsible for performing the work. To truly succeed in the role, y'all must be open up to effective feedback from each person. Accepting feedback gracefully is the sign of a true professional who is more interested in completing the project successfully than in boosting their own ego.

Art Manager Average Salary

The salary of an fine art manager varies based on several factors, including employment status, manufacture, geographic location, job duties, and experience level. According to Bacon.com, the average bacon for an art managing director in the United States is $127,411 per year. Salaries in the art direction field typically range from $107,714 to $151,867.

How to Get an Art Director

Art directors get to employ their creativity and leadership skills to bring large visions to life. If this appeals to yous, follow these steps to becoming an art managing director.

Become an education (or proceeds experience)

Many art directors accept some type of formal education, such as a bachelor's degree or chief'due south degree in design or a closely related field. Depending on your interests and skills, yous may want to pursue a caste in graphic design, fine art, or photography. It's also possible to go an art managing director with a degree in media technology or film production if you're interested in working on movie and television sets.

While a degree can assist you lot state an fine art manager task much faster, years of relevant work experience can also lead to new art direction career opportunities.

"Art Management should be a natural pace after many years of working equally a designer and non only knowing how you work but how the creative industry works too." — Marco Cvijetic, Art Director @IKEA

Develop your skills

To succeed as an art director, you must take a specific combination of hard and soft skills. Hard skills, likewise known every bit technical skills, are professional skills that chronicle straight to art management, and soft skills are the skills you need to manage your responsibilities effectively. Depending on which industry you choose, you may need to excel at graphic design, multimedia content development, desktop publishing, or creating illustrations with Adobe software. You tin develop these skills in lower-level roles or work every bit a freelance creative professional person to become the experience you need to utilise for art director jobs in the future.

Soft skills brand it easier to collaborate with other people and ensure every project is completed on time and to the client'south exacting standards. Art directors must exist able to communicate finer with everyone involved in the project, from company executives to design interns. You also need to have management and leadership skills to ensure that anybody on your team executes the artistic managing director'southward vision successfully. Art directors need to encounter tight deadlines, adapt quickly to changing circumstances, and delegate assignments to the people on your team.

"Being a talented designer who is attracted to details and trends is great, but the other half is being a people person who knows how to handle different clients and build bridges between the expectation and the solution." — Marco Cvijetic, Fine art Managing director @IKEA

Build an art director portfolio

As you gain experience, add together completed projects to your design portfolio to evidence future clients how your skills take improved over the years. If you lot don't have a portfolio yet, follow these tips to create one that helps you land the art director job of your dreams.

  • Include only your all-time work. If you don't similar the way a project turned out, you won't feel confident discussing it with a potential client.
  • Put your near impressive project at the beginning of your portfolio to capture the viewer'southward attention.
  • Add a variety of projects to your portfolio. Yous don't want potential clients to think you're a i-pull a fast one on pony, and then add as many types of projects to your portfolio as possible to show off your skills and artistic range.
  • Digitize your portfolio. Gone are the days when you had to elevate a huge portfolio example to every meeting. Yous still need to go along hard copies of completed projects, but many potential clients would rather visit your website to learn more about your work. Make loftier-resolution scans or accept photos and so add together them to your online portfolio with short descriptions of the role you played in each projection.
  • Include self-initiated projects if you lot can't share work yous completed for past employers or clients. You may accept to do this if you signed a nondisclosure agreement. Sharing self-initiated projects is besides helpful if your paid piece of work experience is in a rather narrow niche and you want to be able to show potential clients that you have a much broader range.

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Continuously learn

Just because you already completed your degree and accept some work experience under your chugalug doesn't mean information technology'south okay to stop learning. If you want to know how to become an art manager, one of the keys is to engage in continuous learning. As yous build your portfolio, you should continue developing your skills and proactively stay upwardly to date on the latest trends and happenings in your field. As new styles and techniques emerge, knowing what'due south going on nether the surface is more important than e'er to growing your art management career.

Sites like Udemy and LinkedIn Learning are ideal for learning new design methods, experimenting with industry-standard software, and gaining a better understanding of what an art manager does. ​​Follow blueprint blogs and publications to empathise how your field is evolving.

Build your professional network

Now that you take the knowledge, skills, and experience needed to become an art director, it's fourth dimension to hit the networking circuit. Professional networking has a bad reputation in some circles, but it can be highly constructive if you approach it the right way. Instead of attending a networking effect for the sole purpose of landing a paid gig, arrive a point to build relationships with the people you come across. If you lot don't accept a lot of networking experience, follow these tips to ensure everything goes smoothly.

  • Accept business cards with yous to go far easy to commutation contact data with other attendees.
  • Write an elevator pitch and practice it earlier the result. An lift pitch is a quick manner to introduce yourself to someone else and give them an overview of what you do.
  • Heed more than y'all talk. When you do talk, try to say something of value to the other person. You may desire to offer advice on solving a tough design problem, for example.
  • Stay in touch after the issue is over. Instead of pitching your services, focus on helping your contacts in some mode. An easy way to practice this is to send an email with a link to an article that offers additional insight on a topic you discussed during the networking consequence.

Attract new clients

As a freelance art director, your income depends solely on your ability to country new projects. Attending networking events is a good kickoff stride, only information technology'south not the just way to go freelance work. If you're searching for your next opportunity, try some of these tactics:

  • Develop a comprehensive marketing plan to increment awareness of your services. Your marketing strategy may include print advertising, digital advertising, search engine optimization, and word-of-oral cavity marketing activities.
  • Inquire previous clients for referrals.
  • Create profiles on Dribbble, LinkedIn, and other professional person networking sites. Make sure you indicate that you're open to new opportunities.
  • Start a weblog or look for opportunities to contribute to magazines and digital publications. Sharing your expertise is a not bad way to go potential clients interested in what you have to offer.
  • Position yourself every bit an expert in the field by publishing an ebook or answering questions on sites like Quora.
  • Establish a potent social media presence.
  • Volunteer to present at conferences for industry professionals.
  • Donate your services to a nonprofit organization. This is especially helpful if you need to branch out and add a new type of design projection to your portfolio.

Marko Cvijetic

What'south the Difference Between an Art Manager and a Artistic Director?

The difference between an art managing director and a artistic director is quite subtle. A creative manager is responsible for coming up with the overall vision of a project, and an art manager is responsible for executing that vision.

Fine art directors and artistic directors need some of the same skills, such equally team management and delegation, but an art director is more involved in the details of project execution.

The job of a creative managing director typically involves:

  • Big-pic thinking
  • Coming up with interesting and innovative ideas
  • Delegating tasks to squad members
  • Ensuring finished designs encounter client expectations

Creative directors are oftentimes charged with creating a brand route map or developing a cohesive brand identity and creative vision, giving audience members — production buyers, magazine readers, movie watchers, etc. — a consistent experience.

What are the most important skills for a creative managing director?

If yous're interested in becoming a artistic director instead of an art director, y'all should have the most of import skills needed: leadership, facilitation, artistic eye, team-building skills, inspiration, and passion. Information technology's too critical to accept feel equally a designer or artist of some sort.

For example, someone with photography expertise may take the eye for particular needed to develop unique artistic visions for a wide variety of projects. You may besides be well-suited for a artistic director position if you lot excel at storytelling because a creative managing director must exist able to develop designs that tell a compelling story.

What's the average salary of a Creative Managing director?

The salary of a creative director varies based on several factors, including employment status, industry, geographic location, job duties, and experience level. According to Salary.com, the average salary for a artistic managing director in the United states is $134,055 per year. Salaries in this field typically range from $113,311 to $157,347.

Your New Career Awaits

Working as an art manager or creative manager is extremely rewarding, especially if y'all decide to get a freelancer. Every project you complete is an opportunity for professional person growth and one that can assist yous accelerate your career as yous learn new skills. To pursue this exciting career, obtain a degree in a pattern or a media-related field, gain experience, and build a portfolio that captures attending.